STAR TREK: RAVENLIN: THE DYING SHORES
by James Roots
Summary: A MASSIVE BORG FLEET INVADES THE UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS. THE STARSHIP USS RAVENLIN MUST DEFEND THE SENOVIAN STAR SYSTEM FROM BORG DESTRUCTION.
1. Chapter 1

_ THE FIRE OF OUR MEMORIES _

_Ridiva's disembodied consciousness hung in darkness, the liquid all around her. A muted sound slowly intruded into her mind._

_The klaxons blazed red in the acrid smoke, the ship shook, shuddered and groaned under the enemies fire. _

_ "Shields down to ten percent" the ensign, turned tactical officer, screamed, his voice hoarse from the biting smoke._

_ "Starboard nacelle is not responsive" he added straining to keep his composure. _

_Lieutenant Ridiva sat in the captains chair and stared in shock at the shattered remains of the advance stealth fleet. Her bioluminescent plasma roiling of off her hair in crimson, panicked waves._

_ "Sir, what should we do, ….sir" he asked again, coughing. _

_The captains body lay smoldering at her feet, fear and panic griped her, she glanced at the Vulcan cadet at the helm and envied her. The Vulcan cadet was calm and stoic as always, as if she was in the mess hall of the star fleet academy. _

_ "How many Dominion ships left" Lieutenant Ridiva finally managed, and briefly glanced at the frightened faces around her. After a pause. _

_ "Four...three...maybe...I don't know...I can't tell." the ensign manning the tactical console stuttered wide eyed. _

_ "Do we have any weapons left?" Ridiva winced in pain, holding the side of her waist she stood up and stepped over the still smoldering body of her captain. _

_ Her hot, luminescent white blood seeped through her fingers and splattered the soot scared deck beneath her unsteady feet. _

_ "No, the phaser banks are offline...we have...expanded all of the torpedoes..." the ensign managed. _

_For a moment Ridiva was back on Vulcan, in T'lan's arms. The sound was getting louder. _

_The ship pitched and shuddered violently, "Shields are gone" the ensign yelled. "The Dominion fighter is turning around for another pass." he added staring at Lieutenant Ridiva, begging her for a solution. The Dominion fighter swiftly banked and turned around in the flickering holographic view-screen, it was angling straight at them. _

_Lieutenant Ridiva stood frozen and stared through the thick choking smoke at the holographic view-screen, her irises blazing red with her bio-luminescent plasma, as the fighter drew closer it's weapon ports glowing, prepared to fire._

_Ridiva was back in the liquid, trashing violently, overcome with panic, drowning. The sound was louder._

_The klaxons sirens blazed, Ridiva turned to the ensign manning the science console, "how many shuttles do we have" she breathed out, her eyes blazing. _

_ "Seven" the Andorian winced, blue blood seeping out of a deep gash on his forehead. Lieutenant Ridiva limped over to the Vulcan at the helm. "Cadet T'lan prepare to remotely pilot the shuttles in the front shuttle bay" Lieutenant Ridiva quickly said. _

_ Squeezing the deep gash on her waist Ridiva tapped her com badge, _

_ "Ridivia to Ensign Rovi."_

_ "Rovi here," Rovi answered with a quivering voice through bursts of static, "Our shields are down, and the warp core is down..." He began shrilly. "I don't care," Ridiva barked, cutting him of. He was the only human that she had grown to dislike during the short time that she was stationed aboard the USS Ravenlin. When the senior crew members were killed in the horrific first wave of the battle that their fleet had seen, Lieutenant Ridiva had quickly assumed command and then assigned ensign Rovi to be chief engineer of the Starship Ravenlin. _

_Ridiva was in the Desert of the Forge on Vulcan, doubled over on her knees, sobbing. The noise was shaking the desert around her._

_She had to put aside her personal dislike of the high whinny noise that came out every time he opened his mouth. She knew that Rovi was the only one even remotely qualified for the engineering position. _

_ "Prepare to overload the warp cores of the Shuttle Osprey and the Shuttle Sprite on my command," she barked at him. _

_ "But, but..." Rovi sputtered through the static, "do not make any more noise," Lieutenant Ridivia screamed into her com badge, her bio luminescent hair and eyes growing a brighter shade of red with her anger. _

_ "Just do as I say, if you wish to live, if you want a chance at surviving this battle." She glanced at the Andorian at the science station, "Cadet Zamel flood the deflector array with graviton particles, use the gravity platting power supply if you have to," wincing she limped back to the captains chair, garbed it for support and stood there. _

_ "Yes... sir," cadet Zamel replied wiping blue blood from his eyes. _

_ "Rovi here" Ridivas com badge shrilled. _

_ "Go head" she replied. _

_ "Engineering is ready to remotely detonate the shuttles...but...but I would advice not being anywhere near when we do it." He said. _

_ "As if we have a choice" she sighed, "Rovi, see if you can reestablish communications with sick bay," Ridiva added, "We desperately need their help on the bridge." She glanced at the injured and the dead littering the command deck._

_ "T'lan have you established the remote up-link with the shuttles?" Ridiva asked as she sat back down into the captains chair. _

_ "Yes, lieutenant Ridiva," T'lan replied, "I am ready to launch the shuttles at your command."_

_ "Good," Ridiva replied. _

_Ridiva was floating on her back, in a lake of magma, staring up at the dark sky sprinkled with twinkling stars. T'lan was an the bank, motioning for Ridiva to come out of the lake. The noise was unbearable. _

_She then turned her gaze to the Andorian and asked, "how many cochranes of gravitons were you able to divert to the deflector array." _

_ "Two thousand milli-cochranes," Zalem answered, his voice strained. Lieutenant Ridiva thought for a second. "That will have to do." _

_The Jem'hadar fighter opened fire, shaking and slapping the ship from side to side. Consoles exploded in a burst of plasma sparks. Ridiva winced in pain as the sparks, from a ruptured EPS conduit, showered her from above. A decompression alarm blinked on one of the barely working consoles build into the Captain's chair._

_ "What is going on," Ridiva yelled at the ensign behind tactical. "We have multiple hull breaches through the ship..."_

_ "Zalem, is there any federation com badges outside the ship..."Ridiva screamed at him._

_ "The Jem'hadar fighters will be on top of us momentarily," T'lan said._

_ "There are, several federation signals outside..."_

_ "Beam them back, now,"Ridiva screamed at Zalem._

_ "I...I...can't," Zalem stammered._

_ "What..."_

_ "...the transporters are down..."_

_ "God damn it, God damn it all to hell," Ridiva screamed. _

_ "Jem'hadar fighters closing..."_

_ "Helm, full stop, release the shuttles," Ridiva, yelled and caught her breath. _

_ "Aim for the nearest two fighters, engineering stand-buy for my order," Ridiva slowly let her breath out. _

_ "The fighter is firing... at us, they are ignoring the shuttles," the ensign at tactical screamed, excitement in his voice._

_ "Helm rotate the ship so the deflector array faces the fighters," Ridiva barked._

_ "How far away are the dominion fighters from the shuttles," Ridiva yelled at tactical. _

_The ship shook and groaned as the Dominion beams sliced into the deflector array._

_ "The shuttles will impact the fighters in...3...2..."_

_ " Engineering, overload the shuttles warp cores..." _

_ "...1..."_

_ "Now," Ridiva screamed. _

_Two, blinding hot, searing stars bloomed, and, in fleeting instant, the Dominion ships evaporated into super heated gas. _

_The searing noise was everywhere._


	2. Chapter 2

THE DISQUIET

Captain Ridiva sat up with a hoarse yell, sending her pet _shelk_ flying off of her panting chest. Startled, it somersaulted in the air and landed on the bed post flapping it's wings for balance. She had inherited her pet and the bio-mechaniod millipede, from her escape pod.

"Computer, lights," she managed, breathing hoarsely, taking a moment to get her bearings and to ostracize the fading nightmare from her foggy mind, as the lights slowly brightened to a dim, preset level.

A flashing holographic starfleet logo spun in the air above her polished wooden desk. Barefoot and in her command red pajamas, shivering and slightly trembling she crossed her quarters over to the replicator. Her hair glowing a deep violet, she croaked "Glass of ice, cubed...please" she added. As the glass materialized, Ridiva nervously glanced at the Sat-Com logo and shook of the cold white plasma still clinging to her body.

Ridiva took a few quick breaths to ease her growing apprehension. The spinning logo's color was red, the color of blood of her human captain, who had been killed in the first wave of that battles attack, that her nightmare had replayed so vividly.

Seven standard federation cycles had passed since that day, Captain Ridiva wondered why she had had this nightmare now.

Crunching a few ice cubes, Ridiva briskly crossed the quarters to her desk and sat down in front of the priority level Sat-Com logo.

"Authorization, Captian Ridiva, alpha zeta ten." She said, barely audible.

"Confirmed," the computer replied. "Put it through," Ridiva commanded.

The holographic image of Admiral Nachayev appeared above the desk. "Did I catch you at a bad time?" The Admiral quickly asked Captain Ridiva eying Ridiva's pajamas.

"No," Ridiva answered hastily, and brushed a few glowing strands of hair from her face.

"Well..., good," Admiral Nacheyev said, flatly.

"I wouldn't want to inconvenience you, Captain," the Admiral continued sarcastically, "but, the Borg have invaded the Federation."

Captain Ridiva slowly leaned back into her plush dark brown chair, "what..." she started.

"The Borg have invaded Federation space" the admiral cut her of. "You are to proceed to the Senovian Star System and defend it at all costs."

"Yes sir."

"Further more," the Admiral voice took on a sudden softness, "we can't send any back up, you will be on your own." Admiral Nacheyevs gray tired eyes stared at Captain Ridiva. She sat, stunned, as usual, the foreboding nightmare had been veraciously correct. A cold clammy feeling overcame Ridiva and she shivered.

"Why...why..."

"There are no answers with the Borg, think of them as a force of nature, an act of God, if you will," The Admiral said nonchalantly. "You have your orders, there is nothing much else to say, so I wish you all the best." The Admiral promptly signed of.

"Yes sir...thank you, sir." Captain Ridiva slowly stood up as the holographic transmission of the Admiral faded into the navy blue UFP logo.

Ridiva stared at the UFP logo, as her attached orders were decrypted by the computer. Stress, anger and disquiet suddenly thickened like black tar in her chest. Her rapid, chocked breath heaved her large chest, the bio luminescent blood in her veins quickly turned a deep crimson color. Her feelings were out of control.

"Who's god," she thought anger roiling in her chest.

She tapped her com badge, "Ridiva here, All senior staff, report to the briefing room, in five." The red continued to intensify. She took two long deep breathes, and tried to calm her feelings. To still the flow of the bio-plasma into her heated chest. Her adopted human mother had spent countless nights with her, teaching her many holistic forms of deep concentrated meditation and intense visualization techniques to calm her heartbeat. Or, rather, the organ that circulates the super heated, glowing, high pressure bio-plasma through Ridivas body.

"A scientific marvel."

Ridiva had heard one of the Starfleet Medical scientist gush excitingly to her protective parents after a long and an extensive session of poking and prodding. She remembered, how the jubilant scientists had gone on to explain, how Ridiva's exotic biology shouldn't even exist, in the remarkable identical to human form. Ridiva later, learned, that the group of scientists, who, collectively had examined her countless of times, had published several dozen scientific papers on her unheard of physiology and its unique metabolic functions. Some of the scientist involved had even won the Cochranes prize in exotic xenobiology, for the breakthrough's that they had made as a result of studying her.

If she applied the holistic techniques, Captain Ridiva, could reduce the pressure of the bio-plasma, the rate of its circulation, and even alter its chemical composition. But more importantly, she could calm her feelings with the techniques, and thereby reduce her body's core temperature. Her mother had spend countless hours, working, researching, many a long tiring nights to help Ridiva. It was only because of her mother's hard work that Ridiva gained a certain measure of control on her tempestuous body and her out of control emotions.

She had joined starfleet only because she had desperately wanted to find her people, to find out who she was, where she had come from. Why had she ended up being rescued by starfleet from a crashed escape pod, her heart ached to know.

After she was rescued by starfleet, she was adopted by human parents and grew up on the utopian Earth. Her foster parents had been loving and caring to her, as if she was their own. They had provided her with a calm, safe home to grow up in. They had calmly met all of the demands of her unique physiology.

But to some extent she never felt at home, even surrounded by so many different and unique alien species living in harmony on Earth, she felt out of place, she longed for space, to find her people, she longed for even a tiny hint.

Every day she would scan the Federation News Network and all of the holographic news channels provided by the Federation News Service. But, as the days and the years passed, she grew up, and that day never came.

"Computer, open a civilian communications channel, to Jezebel and William May, authorization Captain Ridiva, Terra three, priority level one."

"Working," replied the flat female voice of the ships computer, after a pause, the Starfleet Civilian Communications Services logo appeared, and after a longer pause, her cheerful parent's holographic massage came on.

Ridiva listened to it for a while, and marveled how full of life her parents always seemed, even now. Even through the flat narrow bandwidth of the subspace signal, boosted by hundreds of transceivers and spanning over a thousand and a half light-years, she could feel their unconditional warmth and kindness. Their virtuous love for each other, and, Ridivia, could feel, for her.

"Dad...Mom..." She hesitantly started, "I... love you..." An intense burst of deep violet and indigo glowed from her irises, followed by her hair. "Um...ugh...Thank you for everything." Ridiva was close to tears, as deep blues shimmered through her hair and eyes.

"I am...really glad it was you...no...I am thankful, completely, from the bottom of my heart, for everything that you have done for me, for everything that you have taught me, for your kindness and your love." She paused, unsure of herself, not knowing what to say next.

"Computer, send the recording and disengage."

Even though, the designers and engineers of the Tranquility class, deep-space multi-role exploration starship, had thoughtfully build the Captains quarters closest to the bridge and hence the briefing room, Captain Ridiva, again, was emitting deep hues of red and crimson by the time she had stepped onto her cavernous bridge. The bridge was dimly lit, to simulate the biological rhythms that were the most prevalent on the ship. Even though, herself, Ridiva could go many planetary revolutions without sleep, she preferred Earths cycles and rhythms as a result of growing up on that idyllic planet.

"Helm," she briskly said, "Set course for the Senovan Star System, maximum warp." And, then, quickly disappeared into the Captain's Office adjacent to the Briefing room.

"Yes ma'am," The Senovan ensign, Rak'Tavi complied. The Captain exited the bridge so quickly that the on duty, night-shift chief operations officer, Liy'anka, a Senovan, did not even have time to react.

"Must have something to do with the emergency communications packet from Command, that we routed to her quarters a moment ago." She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder towards the door leading into the Captain's Office.


	3. Chapter 3

REVELATIONS

T'lan had been in deep meditation when the Captain's order came. She doused the flickering flame on her meditation lamp and quickly got up. She had removed her traditional Vulcan robes in favor for the starfleet's standard issue commanders uniform, she was drinking a cold glass of water that she had just synthesized, when she felt the ship shudder slightly, change course and accelerate to maximum warp. It was a barely perceptible change, however, it was sufficient for her superior Vulcan senses. She set the unfinished glass on the table next to her intricately sculpted meditation lamp and hurried out the door.

T'lan was deep in thought, playing out various scenarios as to the reason she was summoned by the Captain so early in the shift. She was postulating a sequence of possible events that had led to this situation. She arrived at the conclusion that the emergency meeting had been called due to Borg related activities. At the end of her previous shift, she had read a Starfleet Intelligence brief on the possibility of renewed Borg incursions. Commander T'lan was calculating the probability of such on event, when she heard the electromag motivators on the turbolift whine down to a halt. The doors slid open, Lieutenant Commander Zamel and Chief Engineer Rovi stood there, both looking sleepy and tired.

"Commander," Zamel bowed his head slightly as he and Rovi got onto the turbolift.

"Do you have any idea what is going on," Rovi, immediately, directed his gaze and inquiry at the Vulcan Commander.

"No," answered T'lan, "but I presume it is why we are in this turbolift on our way to the briefing room."

"Yes, I got the call too," Zamel added, "It never bodes well, when its so sudden, in the middle of the night-shift, out of the blue, as the old Human saying goes."

"You think its something bad, some sort of emergency," Rovi looked at Zamel with suspicion.

"I have my misgiving," Zamel answered, "I have never seen the Captain change the ship's course so fast, or, at least, not without consulting her staff first." He frowned.

"All speculation is useless, we will know shortly," Commander T'lan interjected flatly, "Once we are briefed."

"You thinks so?" Rovi looked at the Commander.

"Why would one be called to the briefing room," T'lan's cool dark gaze settled on the Chief Engineer, "unless one is about to be upraised of the situation, it is simple logic."

"You have knack of asking the stupid," Zamel chuckled at Rovi, "but, seriously" the Andorian added, "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Is this the famous gut feeling that you emotionallist's purport to have?" T'lan asked sceptically.

"I am not stupid," whined Rovi, ignoring the commanders question. "Why do you always..."

"I didn't say," Zamel cut him off, "that, _you,_ are stupid," he emphasized, "just that you say some stupid things..."

"I do not..." Rovi retorted, his infamous high pitched voice filled the small turbolift.

"That is sufficient," Commander T'lan said coldly, "lets refrain from irrelevant discussions."

"Yes sir." Zamel and Rovi answered in unison, although Rovi made a slight face at Zamel.

The turbo lift whined to a halt and the light, muted brown, earth toned doors hissed open. The commander stepped out first, followed by Zamel and Rovi, they briskly crossed the small dim hallway leading to the briefing room.

When they entered and hastily took their seats one by one, the Cardasian chief of security and their tactical officer, Garim was already seated behind the polished wooden table.

He looked up from several padds laid out in a fan shaped array in front of him and said, "Ah, nice of you to join us at such a short notice, please do take your seats." He motioned with his right gray hand to the earth toned seats. "I have been patiently waiting for the staff to assemble."

When he had joined Strafleet, as one of the first Cardasians, when less than a year had passed from the end of the war with the Dominion and the signing of the Treaty of Bajor. He had to overcome a great deal of animosity and hatred that was directed at him. Even though Cardassians had been on the losing side of the war, however, many in starfleet still saw Cardassians as the enemy, and harbored ill feeling towards Cardassians. He had, however, quickly demonstrated exemplary service and dedication at his first posting. With the usual Cardasian tenacity, his own brand of dry humor and his laconic ability at understatement.

Even then, when he had been promoted to a lieutenant chief of security, he was transferred to Starship Ravenlin. Everyone, in the fleet, knew, that, Ravenlin was the least "human" ship that star-fleet had in service.

The black haired, intense looking Betaziod first contact specialist, Rem, was, also, already present. She greeted the arriving with a curt nod.

"Where is Captain Ridiva," Commander T'lan asked Garim, ignoring his previous remarks.

"Pacing in her office," he motioned at the closed door that led to the Captain's Office, "ready to spontaneously combust, I presume," he added, calmly looking back at the padd's twinkling screen in his left hand.

"Why...why," Rovi, asked slightly alarmed and unsure if Garim was joking or being serious.

"Well...," Garim made a dramatic pause, to make sure that everyone's gaze was on him, "I presume it has something to do with the little Borg invasion of the Federation."

"What," Rovi yelped, "The...Borg..."

"Yes the Borg." Garim said cutting Rovi of and continued.

"It seems that the combined interstellar fleet of several thousand ships, had little effect on the Borg and has been _completely_ decimated at the Battle of The Azure Nebula." He looked around at the stunned faces starring back at him. To his morbid satisfaction, he thought that his statement elicited a slight twitch of the eternally stoic, but beautiful face of his Vulcan Commander. It was brief, but it did not escape his highly trained Cardasian powers of observation. He silently wished that Commander T'lan fleeting display of emotion had been for far more benign reasons.

"The entire fleet?" T'lan asked, her voice low but even.

"Yes," Garim shrugged his shoulders, "the whole fleet was _completely_ annihilated."

"I presume, then, that we are on our way to defend the UFP core of the Senovia Star System from the Borg." T'lan stated rather than asked.

"You presume correctly," Garim said as he put his elbows on the polished table and intertwined his gray cold fingers in front of his chin. Then added, "I don't think, as the humans like to say, it is much of a stretch of one's imagination, but it would seem that we are also completely on our own."

"Most likely," T'lan, said simple.

"What...why," Rovi's voice rose to a screech.

"Think," Zamel said, somewhat annoyed, "if Garim is right, than who will come to help us, starfleet can't send anyone, not because they don't want to. But most likely it is because they have no one left to send."

"Presciently," Garim exclaimed.

The door to the briefing room hissed open, Doctor Helvaga, a Denobilan, and the stunningly beautiful Counselor Ariana, a Deltan, entered.

"My most favorite being on the ship," Garim motioned for Ariana to sit next to him. She sat and gave him a weak smile.

"Why at this hour," she said quietly, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"The Borg, my dear," Garim answered, "never sleep, or so I have heard."

"Yes they do," The Chief Engineer interjected. "They have to regenerate every..."

"Mr. Rovi!" Garim cut him of, "But that is not sleep, is it now?"

Zea'misa and Lim'na arrived next, both Senovan, obviously sleepy, quietly took their seats.

The door to the captain's office hissed open and Captain Ridiva entered, quietly, quickly sat down into the plush chair at the head of the large table.

"As you all know," she began, "for the last two months the Federation has been attacked by the Borg several times, in all instances, the attacks have been carried out by a single Borg ship. Any and all engagements with the Borg have resulted in huge loses for the Federation. Both in the amount of sentient being's lives lost and in the amount of capital ships destroyed. Recently the starship Enterprise, under the command of Captain Jean Luc Picard, have been using the temporally displaced technology, the transphasic torpedoes, to battle the Borg." She paused and took a long look at the faces of her crew, then continued.

"Recently the crew of Enterprise found the launch of point of the Borg attacks into Federation space. It was believed by Starfleet Intelligence, that the Borg had, somehow, after the actions of the crew of Voyager, that collapsed the Borgs trans-warp network, had found their way into Federation space. After a battle with the Borg, and the examination of Borg debris, the chief engineer of the Enterprise found the debris were contaminated by the particles and chemicals found in the Azure Nebula. A subspace tunnel was found in the Azure Nebula, that led to Borg space, that the Borg were using to launch their attacks. The Federation president assembled the largest fleet to defeat the Borg once and for all." She paused again, her bio-luminescence increased.

"I have just received word from Admiral Nacheyev that the entire fleet has been destroyed."

"How is that possible..." Zalem, asked frowning, "didn't they even put up a fight? How could..."

"There were seven thousand Borg cubes." Ridiva cut him off. "This could be..." she hesitated, "this _is _the end of the United Federation of Planets."

"The Borg are currently on their way to the core founding UFP worlds, there is no one in their way, no one who can stop them." Captain Ridiva stopped.

"There is one more thing," She got up, and tugged on her custom made, ceramic fiber captain's vest.

"The Borg...are no longer...assimilating...anyone," Ridiva carefully looked at each of her crew members faces.

"It would seem, then, that the Borg are simple killing everyone unfortunate to come across their path." Garim made the statement, rather than a question.

"Garim is right," Captain Ridiva confirmed. "They are simple murdering all the sentient beings. that they can."

"Well, at least, there is a silver lining to this storm," Garim said, "as the Earth saying goes."

"How is there a silver lining..." Rovi started whining.

"Well..."Garim started.

"I would rather be dead, than be turned into a cold emotionless drone" Captain Ridiva cut Garim and Rovi off. "Who, here feels the same?" She asked.

"I do," Garim drawled, "but, Captain, I really think we should reconsider abandoning plan A."

"And what would that plan entitle" Ridiva stopped pacing for a second.

"Well, frankly," the Cardassian leaned back into his chair, "staying alive."

"We don't even know that the Borg are going to come here, that they will attack the Senovan Star System." Rovi said timidly, his face pale.

"No, they most likely will, in fact they most likely are on their way here as we speak." Garim summarized.

"Agreed," Captian Ridiva finally stopped pacing and sat down into her ceramic fiber lined chair.

"The Senovan Star System accounts for fifteen percent of the Federation's GDP." Lieutenant Rem, the Betozoid first contact specialist finally spoke up. "They have one of the largest dry dock facilities and ship building economies. It's mostly civilian ships that they build, but, the Senovians also supply a large percentage of Starfleet's ships. It's highly unlikely that the Borg will ignore such a large Federation system." She added, looking around, at her colleagues with her dark eyes. She had been involved with the defense of Betazid during the Dominion occupation. The war had left deep seated scars on her physique, she was willing to go to great lengths to defend peace. After the war, she realized the immense value of Starfleet and its role in defending the Federation member worlds. She also, during her years in the academy, came to the realization that diplomacy and civilized discourse was the only way that the Galaxy would achieve long lasting and stable peace. For that reason she became a first contact specialist.

"Any short of negotiation is useless with the Borg," Rem added, "We need to fight."

"How?" Captain Ridiva simple asked.

"We could request Starfleet Command to arm us with the transphasic torpedoes, the technology seems to have been very effective in defeating the Borg in the past." Garim added, again picking up one of his padd's.

"Believe me," Captian Ridiva made an exasperated motion with her right hand, "I have tired many times. Starfleet Command believed it would prevent the Borg from adapting their shields to the torpedoes if they limited their use to a single starship, mainly the Enterprise."

"That's not fair," Rovi reverted to his usual whinny high pitched voice, "what are the rest of us supposed to do..."

"That is irrelevant now," Ridiva continued, "the torpedoes are useless now, the Borg have long since adapted their shields harmonics to resist the torpedo. There currently exist no weapon, in the Federation arsenal, or in her allies arsenals, that can defeat the Borg. We have no way to fight them." She paused, she wanted the words to sink in.

"People," she sighed, "what I need from you is a way to stop the Borg, something, somehow, anything, we need to stop them. There are six hundred billion sentient beings in this star system. They depend on us, no one but us." She grew heated, her bio-luminescence increased again.

"We are the first and the last line of defense that the Senovians have, if we fail, they will perish. As cliche as that might sound, it is the absolute truth."

"There is another option," Garim spoke up.

"...Another option...you mean..." Zamel stopped.

"Yes," Garim shrugged his shoulders, wide eyed. "As the humans like to say, I am playing the devils advocated, here, but the possibly still exists. When it comes to the Borg, should we not consider all of our options?" Captain Ridiva's bio-luminescent eyebrows arched and she shot out of her chair.

"That, is not an option," she yelled at the table, her red glow surging to uncomfortable high level of radiance. "I am not running away, I am not abandoning these people." Her voice grew even louder.

"Captian Ridiva," Garim replied seemingly unaware of her emotional outburst. "I am not suggesting that we run away, it is, simple, that we will certainly fail to stop the Borg. In this case it won't matter if we were here to fought or not, the outcome will be the same."

"It matters to me." Rem insisted.

"It will not, once you are dead," Garim calmly replied.

"We are not dead yet," Captian Ridiva, said, breathing deeply to calm herself, "Besides I would not be able to live with myself, with my guilt, if, somehow, miraculously we survived and escaped."

"I would not have a problem surviving in such a manner" Garim said looking at his Captain. Ridivas eyes narrowed to two brilliant red slits.

"Are you actually suggesting that we run away," she hissed, her dangerous gaze affixed to Garim.

"Like I said, no..."

"End of the discussion, then," Captain Ridiva barked at him. "I need more constructive suggestions, mainly, on how to defeat the Borg." She practically spat the last word out. Garim seemed oblivious, "Should we, at least, not warn the Senovians, so, perhaps, some of them might be able to evacuate. Like Rem said..." He motioned at lieutenant Rem. "...You did say that the Senovians posses a large number of civilian ships."

"Even if they did try to evacuate, it would be a small fraction of a percent of their population." Rem shrugged, "Their population is simple to large, not to mention the logistical nightmare of trying to evacuate all the people, who are spread over three stars and dozens of planets in such a short amount of time."

"Wait," Rovi said nonplussed, "I thought Senovia was a single star."

"It's a quadrary star system..." The Senovian stellar Cartographer, Zea'misa begun, "...Senova is a blue hyper-giant..."

"I have already contacted the Senovian government," The captain interrupted her. "They have already issued a system wide, criticality level one, security alert, and issued a general evacuating order. For those who posses the means, that is."

"Why," Garim, surprised, looked up from his padd. The Captain ignored him.

"Those who do not posses warp capable craft have been directed by the Senovan Self Defense Force, to hide in the Sea of Sorrows. Better known as the Senovian Nebula. There is currently a class eight subspace storm brewing in the Sea of Sorrows. The storm is preventing most kinds of sensors from functioning properly. Also, Grand Admiral San'ganse has mobilized the Self Defense Fleet."

"Why," Garim asked again. Captain Ridiva stared at him for a moment, then finally said, "The Senovan Early Warning subspace sensor installation at the Inastranka outpost has detected a Borg fleet moving at high warp. On a course straight for Senovan space. The Borg's fleet, present warp factor puts their ETA in Senova on stardate 34576.1.22" Ridiva stopped.

"That's tomorrow morning," gasped Rovi, "that leaves us no time whatsoever to prepare." He whined.

Garim frowned. "Captain Ridiva, I must have misheard you. Did you say, 'a Borg fleet'." Garims reptilian features rose and his gaze squarely affixed itself on Captain Ridiva.

"Yes," the Captain answered, finally calm enough to sit back down into her chair.

"How many ships?" the Senovian day shift chief operations officer, Lim'na, suddenly asked. He was fully awake and alert, no longer stiffing his yawns.

Captian Ridiva stared at him and wondered, how he felt, what he thought. The Borg were on their way to annihilate his star system. His home. She thought about her adopted home, Earth, as a founding member and the capital of the Federation, it's certain destruction. How she would miss her parents inviting home, the long quiet farm road that she had taken everyday to school. How she would miss the sonorous rustle of the big weeping willows leaves when they swayed in the gentle breeze. She would miss laying in the grass under the weeping willow's crown, staring at the far of stars. Dreaming.

"Captian?" T'lan prompted, arching her delicate right eyebrow. The Captain sighed.

"According to the data I received from the Inastranka early warning installation..." Ridiva swiped the table and activated the haptic user interface built into the wooden conference table. "...There are..." Her right had deftly tapped out a series of commands on the smart surface and a holographic projection appeared above the desk, of the sector where Ravenlin was currently traveling. "...twenty seven Borg ships." With her delicate hand she pointed at a tight formation represented by twenty seven green cubes in the projection.

"What of Inastranka," T'lan finally spoke up, breaking the long pause of silence. "The Borg have completely ignored them." Ridiva answered.

"The planet is barely class-m, with hardly anyone living there, perhaps the Borg simple didn't care about the planet." Garim put forward.

"Or maybe they wanted us to know that they were coming," Zamel offered. "Since they stopped assimilating, we can't know what other changes they may have undergone."

"No one is dismissing the possibility of other changes that the Borg have applied to themselves'" T'lan said. "But at this stage, any new intelligence that we obtain or deduce, most likely will not be of use to us in any way."

"I don't need a psychological or a behavioral analysis of the Borg," the Captain interrupted, "As I have previously asked, I need a way to defeat them." The Captain got up. "We have until morning till the Borg get here. I need ideas, for now, you are all dismissed. We will reconvene in one hour, we have no time to waste."


	4. Chapter 4

"This is unacceptable" grand admiral San'ganse sputtered, his spittle landing on the view screen displaying the cold but soft featured Admiral Nachayev.

"In fact," Grand Admiral San'ganse jumped up from his sitting stool spilling his Senovan Kvas and sending several padds crashing to the floor. "...This is completely unacceptable, this is Ram'ta droppings...this is utter foolishness." He leaned in his outraged blue face centimeters away from the holographic pick up head. "...One ship is a complete joke. Are you making fun of us, of me." His feline features took on a menacing appearance as he bared his sharp white canines.

"You have to take into the account that we just lost forty present of our fleet..."

"I perfectly understand what the Federation is going through right now." San'ganse snarled, " The Senovian Sanctuary, have been members of the Federation for over a century, we have defended the Federation when you asked of us. We were always on your beck and call, even if, the conflicts that the Federation was embroiled in were too distant from our shores, we still did our duty, regardless. We fought, bleed and died for the Federation during the war with the Dominion. Even though the entire conflict took place in the Primary Federation core worlds, we still contributed as required of us as members of the Federation. We sent hundreds of ships, of which, most were lost in the War." With a single swift motion of his muscular left arm, San'ganse sent the contents of his large desk crashing into a wall.

"Accept it or not," Admiral Nachayeva started, "There are over seven thousand Borg ships currently on their way to Federation space, the Federation core worlds," Admiral Nachayev, raised her voice, the lack of sleep, the stress of dealing with hundreds of various dignitaries demanding protection, assistance or simple begging to be saved had finally gotten to her.

"There are no other ships in your vicinity," she yelled, her tired face twisted by anger, " the USS Romeo is on her way to defend the Rim Star System, the USS Radi, I sent to the Lumanase System. The USS Ravenlin, I sent to assist you, she was the closest to your systems, as were the other ships, respectively."

"As for the issues that you have with Captain Ridiva's age, well, she spent a whole year, a year of hell, in the Gamma Quadrant surviving and evading the Jem'Hadar patrols practically on a daily bases."

Then Admiral Nachayev mimicked San'ganse and leaned close to her own holographic imager, "she has more experience in direct combat that most of the Captains out in the fleet..." She made a sweeping motion with her hand, "...I have to admit I had my own doubts when she was promoted to Captain, but that was six standard Federation cycles ago." Admiral Nachayev leaned back into her gray chair.

"If it wasn't for her courageous and heroic acts, the Ravelin and the Pillar of Hope would have been lost..."

"She is practically driveling cub," Grand Admiral San'ganse snarled at the screen, "I wouldn't thrust her with a plasma pistol..."

"That is enough," Admiral Nachayev suddenly last all her composure, "I do not care, what your problems might be with Captian Ridiva, or what you personal insecurities or prejudices are, but..."

The Admiral got out of her chair, and walked to the window as the holo-imager followed and zoomed on her. The beautiful night lit city of San Francisco sprawled from under her feet. The lights sparkled as stars in the depth of the night. "...This..." She motioned at the city as she stared into Grand Admiral San'ganse's yellow-green eyes. "...Will be a smoking crater by morning, There are millions of sentient beings in this city, There are hundreds of thousands of such cities within the Federation, dozens of trillions of people in the Federation, and even more in her allies." Admiral Nachayev paused for a second, San'nganse's black, long irises narrowed to two vertical slits.

"This..." She swallowed the lump forming in her throat, even a life long career in Starleet could not prepare her for this moment. She had meant to drive the point home for the Senovan Grand Admiral, it had worked, but not as she intended. She wasn't sure if she had gotten the point across to the Grand Admiral of the Senovian Self Defense Force. But, the realization of the meaning of what she was explaining, that meaning, had suddenly came crashing down on her. She had lost many colleagues over her long career, and many friends, but this situation, this crisis, was was beyond anything she had experienced. Beyond anything any Admiral or a starship Captain had experienced. This war, it was a pure fight for survival, a simple battle against extinction.

Many of the Federation's expeditions and Federation explorers had found hundreds of extinct civilizations scattered throughout the galaxy. Dead, destroyed, ash covered, forgotten planets, with massive abandoned and buried cities scattered throughout out the galaxy. Some had destroyed themselves, others, destroyed by their enemies, many had simple stagnated and disappeared into time. The Admiral had even visited a few of such archaeological planets, were the entire planet was one humongous archaeological dig. She had never imagined that the fate of such worlds was awaiting her's.

"...We are facing on Extinction Level Event, its...almost...I...am certain that this is the end of United Federation of Planets. The end of everything that we have build, the end of everything that we, everyone, all the members of UFP build and accomplished."

She turned back to the vista outside her transpara-luminum window, to the city lights sprinkled in the night, she feared that they would be extinguished forever.

"I hope that you understand, we are not abandoning you, we are not going back on our word, we are not violating the Federation charter and it duties, its obligations and responsibilities. The Federation is going to cease existing by dawn of this planet. The Borg armada will be arriving here in no time at all. This is probably my last communication with you." The Admiral said, looking out to the city below. She knew there were thousands of people on the street. Some were having candle light vigils, others were praying, most were just saying good bye to their families, to their husbands and wives, their brothers and sisters, to their lovers.

"This is unacceptable," Grand Admiral San'ganse hissed, his long blue tail twitched violently behind him in the air. "I refuse to give up, I refuse to..." He sputtered, furious, "... to simple die and fade out like a dead husk of a long lived star, I swear on my ancestors that I will survive, I will claw, gash, and rip my way out of the underworld to chock these Borg to death. My people have long measured the caliber of ones existence not by how one lived during life, but how one died. I will move..." His furry mangled his word to the point that the universal translator was struggling to keep up with his speech. "...the stars for the victory against the Borg." He snarled.

"We are not giving up," admiral Nachayev said, ignoring his fury. "We are doing everything that we can conceive off, everything that we know how, we even tried some weapons that were banned by all of the civilized worlds, none of these weapons, none of these plans have had any effect against the Borg." Nachayev said. She glanced of to her left and said, "I have to go, something has come up, I wish you the best of luck."

"Die well!" San'ganse snarled, as Admiral Nachayev's face blinked out and was replaced by the Senovan Sanctuary comms symbol.

"I do not wish..." San'ganse roared, picked up a huge glass vase and hurled it at an intricately sculpted wall in his command office, "...I do not believe in luck..." The glass vase shattered into thousands of sparkling shards, "...there are no such things..." His muscular arms, his fists, smashed against the wooden desk ferociously, over and over again. Splinters and wood chips sailed up on each impact. San'ganse keep pounding his table, until the table and what had been left on it was reduced to pulp.

"Have you released all of your anger yet," His secretary, Tae'ra, suddenly asked him as she picked up several padds. "I hope you feel better, these are useless now." She waved two nonfunctional padds in the air, as if they were Cinap fans. "If this is the end, then we shall die with dignity, as our ancestors have done so before us." She strode over to the replicator, her lithe and long legs stepping over the shattered debris with ease. Her long tail hung low, but just as San'ganse's it twitched, but only slightly, displaying the low but controlled level of her agitation and irritation. "Computer," she commanded the glowing replicator console built seamlessly into the wall. "Two..." Her golden green eyes rapidly darted across the smashed and twisted debris scattered on the floor.

"...No...three...four...replicate four type xv-i padds," she finished. The padds quickly materialized in a shower of golden sparks. Tae'ra took the padds, carefully stacked them on top of each other and walked over to were Grand Admiral San'ganse was crouching. Her tail instinctively darted out and intertwined with his as she crouched down next to him and the desk that he had smashed only seconds ago. He stiffened and growled for a moment, then relaxed as her tail coiled and squeezed the end of his tail as if a Anocti'va choking the breath out of it's prey.

The end of the Senovan tail contained a bud of pleasure nerves, over fourteen thousand of nerve endings. Tea'ra knew exactly what kind of effect it would have on San'ganse. "Here..." She thrust the padds at him as she gave his tail a long tight squeeze. "...Take them." San'ganse slowly took the padds and raised himself up to his full height in front of Tea'ra. He was over a head taller than her, but she looked even smaller crouched in front of him, her head bowed down in a submissive gesture. Yet she did not let go of his tail but rather held on tighter. It was a pleasurable sensation, but it conflicted with her submissive posture, her tight grip on the end of his tail was a aggressive if not a dangerous move. San'ganse backed away from Tea'ra until there was a meter of space between them, he wanted to see what Tea'ra would do.

With the Senovan tails being nearly twice as long as their bodies he could have moved half way across his ruined office. Was she trying to mate with him, he wasn't sure. But he knew and had seen, in over one hundred years of his life, what such high levels of stress did to people and how the constant fear of dying changed peoples behavior. He tugged his tail away from her, but Tea'ra did not let go. Her narrowed eyes flashed him a glance from under her brows, her blue lips grew several shades lighter as she smiled and reviled her canines. "She most want foreplay" San'ganse though as he saw Tea'ra put her arms on the floor in front of her, he saw as the powerful muscles in her long curve thighs flexed under the thin cloth that made up her light gray coverings. He realized that she was preparing to leap at him, her mind was now clouded by the pleasure shooting up her spinal cord down from her tail. He knew how far the Senovans could jump, it was in fact several times the length of their own bodies. He could see it plainly now, that hazy shade of lust in her golden eyes.

"I don't have time..." San'ganse quickly closed the distance between them and in one fluid motion drove his heel into her tail. "...for this," he finished.

Tea'ra yelped with pain, as she leaped straight up into the air she let go of San'ganse tail, the waves of pleasure in a single moment replaced by pain. She spun in mid air above him and landed on all fours two meters away from San'ganse. San'ganse couldn't help himself but notice how curvacious and yet, how lithe was Tea'ra's body. She snarled at him.

"Why...why did you do that, ...that hurt..." She was breathing heavily. He knew that female Senovnians had twice as many nerve endings as males, "it must have been painful, painful indeed," San'ganse thought but dared not say it out loud.

"My apologies," San'ganse said slowly, "as much as I appreciate you, there is no time, for..." He glanced at the beautiful feline features of her face, then glanced, at her long inviting body, and now, her, inciting, but, hurt and twitching tail, protectively wrapped around her slender waist. He glanced at her arching back, "...for...this." he motioned at her.

Tea'ra got up slowly and uncoiled her hurt throbbing tail, "that was unnecessary... it hurts.." Holding the end of her tail in her right arm she waved it at San'ganse.

"You could have just said...no." Her golden green eyes flashed her pain, her disappointment at him. She made long soothing strokes with her left hand down her tail, where, moments ago San'ganse's hard heel had caused so much pain. Keeping his own tail pointing away from Tea'ra, he slowly walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulder.

"When this is over..." He quietly started.

"That is the problem..." Tea'ra interrupted him, her sweet warm breath gentle brushing against San'ganse's face. "...It will never be over with you." She breathed out, her wide plump lips centimeters away from San'ganse's.

San'ganse let go of her slim shoulders and backed away from the temptation. "What is more important, my responsibilities to all the cats in the Senovian Sanctuary or your pleasure."

She pouted and made a sad face, "You are so wasteful," she licked her tail, then her lips. "And blind, totally oblivious to those around you."

"Like you?" San'ganse inquired, arching his dark blue eyebrows, "No...believe me, I am not oblivious to you, no, not at all." San'ganse motioned his head at Tea'ra, "you are on amazing she-panther, trust me, that has not escaped my eyes, not at all, if you must know."

"Than why have you not attempted..." she trailed off, her eyes glancing of to the side, blushing slightly, suddenly, lost, unsure of herself.

"We might die tomorrow,... underworld," she cursed, "our whole civilization might be wiped out." Her gaze settled back on San'ganse, her cheeks grew hot. "This might be your last chance to...to...court me." Her eye were misty as she said the last words.

"I have been by your side for many cycles, but you are so old-fashioned and uptight its beyond amazement," Tea'ra hesitated. "To the underworld with it," she cursed.

Tea'ra felt uneasy and hesitant, San'ganse rejection irritated her, but the playful frisky feeling intensified, and in a flash she grew bold, "I want your unconditional promise..." She spun her tail, like an old fashioned Cinap fan, in her right hand and gave San'ganse a coy simile. "...If we survive this invasion that you will spend at least one revolution with me." She dropped her smooth blue tail and gracefully coiled it around her feet.

San'ganse considered Tea'ra for a moment, the she-panther seemed vulnerable, yet strong, insistent in her want. San'ganse could taste her sumptuous desire and feel the lush unmistakable need in her. His feelings stirred within his chest, the long forgotten heat ignited and intensified, the sudden hunger surged through him.

"I promise," San'ganse blurted out before he could stop himself. He could already see the anticipation in Tea'ra's golden-green eyes.

"Then we better not die," Tea'ra hissed at him and started picking up the various office items that San'ganse had previously scattered in his emotional outburst.

The Grand Admiral watched her agile body moving quickly through the mess that he had made.

"The meeting will start in several fractions," Tea'ra pointed with her long elegant arm, "You should change your uniform, I think it will be impossible to clean those Kvas stains out." She gave him a demure glance.

Tea'ra went back to the replicator console and replicated a crisp clean Grand Admiral uniform for San'ganse, while San'ganse hunted for his paper work in the large trash pile that he had made.

"Here, change," Tea'ra thrust the folded uniform at the Admiral "I will wait for you outside your office, please hurry. We have not much time before the staff for the meeting assembles." Tea'ra bowed her perfectly groomed head at San'ganse as he took the uniform out of her hands and walked out of his office.


	5. Chapter 5

San'ganse stood alone in the eerily quiet office and stared out the window. The black night stretched out from under him into the depths. The citywide lights flicked gently, the tall shadows of the building reached up, as if long limber fingers aching for the sky. How long, how many endless painful eons had his people struggled to reach that cold black sky.

How many people had sacrificed their lives, their hopes, their ambitions, so that their distant children could walk throughout the cold uncaring blackness of space. Was the ancestors struggle all in wain. Will the Borg beat them down back to the mud.

The dark cityscape reminded him of the one Admiral Nachayev had, moments, ago showed him in the holographic transmission. San'ganse sighed, feeling melancholy and dejected by his reality, he dressed himself in the new crisp uniform. As he exited his office, he threw the old dirty uniform into his replicator and said, "recycle." As the clothes disappeared in a shower of white sparks, he wondered if the universe was similarly throwing his civilization out.

He met Tea'ra out in the spacious hall, she was waiting by a large glass window, hugging the padds close to her plenteous chest. The long hall was dark, lit only by the distant slowly flickering city glow.

San'ganse gently motioned for her to follow him, she acknowledged him with a small dip of her oval chin. They walked the short distance in total silence, the foreboding, yelling, screaming and cursing, grew nearer with each hesitant step that San'ganse and Tea'ra took.

When Tea'ra opened the heavy wooden door to the conference room, San'ganse was assaulted by the grinding smells of all those present. He could smell, fear, anger, hostility of all those present. The large soporific conference room had been, by now, ripped to shreds.

San'ganse cleared his throat, which, for an Senovan meant a low sustained growl, a pure signal of dissatisfaction. The room grew quiet, all those present shifted their flashing eyes at San'ganse.

"We shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves, but only against our enemies." San'ganse said as he walked into the conference room, carefully avoiding the debris scattered on the floor. "Looks like you haven't wasted any time in tearing my conference room apart. Did you get right in to it?" San'ganse pointed on the floor with his index finger and raised his dark blue eye brows.

"Oh, please spare us the lecture," a dark, striking but aggressive she-panther growled from the shadows behind San'ganse.

"We all know of your temper." San'ganse turned around to see the the Director of Foreign Affairs glaring at him from under her black brows, her arms folded across her chest.

"I can smash anything of my own..." San'ganse growled back.

"Are we going to argue about the various quirks in our personal behavior," Senator Lerf'sa criticized them, "Or perhaps we should discuss more pressing matters." He raised his voice, "oh, I don't know, perhaps, the imminent Borg invasion." Senator Lerf'sa hissed.

San'ganse sat into one of the large empty chairs at the table as Tea'ra set the padds in front of him and stood besides him. The Director of Foreign Affairs sat down next to him, and, ignoring the senator whispered at San'ganse, "Nice of you finally to show your face, I was beginning to suspect that you had ran away."

"You Ram'ta," San'ganse glowered at her, "Are you implying that I am a coward. I will..."

"Enough," Senator Lerf'sa screamed. "Do not loose focus of why we have assembled here so early in the morning." He leaned back into his large cushioned chair as he took a long calming breath.

"Those who choose to leave, it should not be considered dishonorable, they were given a choice, they left." Lerf'sa eyed San'ka, the Director of Foreign Affairs. "Stop your sniveling, pup, we are not here to satisfy our grudges. Bury them. Now." He emitted a dangerous low growl at San'ka. She fidgeted in her chair, but bowed her black head submissively and grew quiet.

"What do you have for us, San'ganse," The Senator asked looking frustrated and tired. He was the only senator who choose not to evacuate and abandon his people at the mercy of the Borg.

"No go news," Grand Admiral San'ganse said, looking all of the cats gathered around the table in the eyes. "The Federation lost a massive fleet. Apparently there was a battle with the Borg in the Azure Nebula and our fleet was wiped out. Not a single ships survived." San'ganse paused. He could feel the pheromones carrying fear and anxiety thicken instantly.

"Not a single ship?" San'ka whispered, her large green eyes wide.

"Still think it was such a hot idea to stay and defend this rock." The Director of Internal Security, Dir'lem hissed at San'ka from across the desk.

San'ganse could smell Dir'lems pheromones on San'ka, in San'ka. Perhaps San'ka had mated with Dir'lim. San'ganse sniffed at San'ka, and thought of Tea'ra. "San'ka must have had more success with Dir'lem, than Tea'ra with me." San'ganse thought.

"They must have mated," suddenly aware of Tea'ra body, her warmth, so close to him.

San'ka glanced at San'ganse, her green eyes flashing.

"Do not even think about," San'ganse growled at her, "I will not lend a single shuttle craft to you."

"Shut up," retorted San'ka, "I have my own damned ships. If I wanted to run, I would have done so already."

"I could have sworn I smelt the stink of fear clinging to you." San'ganse laughed. Before San'ka could react. Lerf'sa, snarled, and smashed his walking stick against the table, "Sanna Aganse, you pup, you should know, by know that fear is not a sigh of cowardice." San'ganse had to remind himself that Lerf'sa was over nine hundred cycles old as all those around shrunk away from the senator and bowed their heads slightly.

"That is true," San'ganse admitted, "But, we are undoubtedly on our own, there is only one ship coming to assist us."

"What," San'ka gasped, disbelief shooting through her eyes.

"Ram'ta droppings," Dir'lem hissed, "I knew it was a long shot, but this," he paused, struggling with his outrage, "this is on insult."

"I did not expect anything more," The old senator said wearily, "if the Federation lost such a large fleet, if it is as you say," He pointed his long craggy finger at San'ganse. "Then, it should not come as surprise to anyone." He looked pointedly and Dir'lem and San'ka. "Those who chose to run," he continued, "already suspected that we would not get much help, if any, from the rest of the members in the United Federation of Planets." He sighed, his tail dropped, "If it was otherwise, We would not be the only once left to defend Senova." He motioned at the few remaining members of the senior government staff.

San'ka put her elbows on the conference table and her beautiful but tired face into the palms of her hands. She rubbed her eyes and then the sides of her head.

"What are we supposed to do, then?" she asked looking at Senator Lerf'sa.

"We will defend Senova as best as we can," He looked San'ganse in the eyes, "and when we die, we shall die well." He got up, picked up his walking stick, "I leave the matter in your hands, San'ganse, do not fail." He waved his old beat up walking stick at San'ganse. "I will be at the Cinap Temple of our Passed Ancestors, praying to the Over-world." He slowly shuffled out of the conference room with his assistant.

"Freming great," Dir'lem cursed, "now what? You better not fail, San'ganse. San'ganse are you a god?" Dir'lem fumed sarcastically. San'ka got up walked around the table and sat down next to him.

"I am not going to give up, I will fight to the death, I will..." San'ganse started.

"Underworld," cursed Dir'lem, "I was hoping to avoid anything to do with death or dying." Tea'ra took San'ka place.

"Five," Sham'lin spoke up suddenly. San'ka spun her head to face the old scientist. He was dirty, unkempt and unwashed. "Five what?" she asked bewildered, as if just noticing his presence.

"Five", Sham'lin said again and shrugged his drooping shoulders. "Five of us left do defend the system." His weary eyes looked around the table.

"My fleet is whole and stands ready to defend Senova as always." San'ganse boasted.

"And what will that accomplish," Sham'lin asked. "Are you so eager to die?"

"That is hardly my intention," snapped San'ganse, "but I will not abandon Senova even if it means my own death." He glared at Sham'lin. "Unless, old man, you have something that will stop the Borg, we will not survive to see tonight's dinner." San'ganse glanced at Tea'ra, his golden green eyes pleading for forgiveness.

"Well do you?" San'ganse asked Sham'lin again.

Sham'lim slowly massaged his gray fatigued eyes and then answered. "I have been up all night, with the most intelligent cats I could find from the Senovian Planetary University, indeed, from the entire Senov System, trying to increase the strength of the planetary wide defense shield..." He grew quiet.

"And," San'ka prompted him, holding her breath.

"Nothing good," sighed Sham'lin. "We have plenty of antimatter stores to power the shield generators. The problem is not in the energy, but rather it is that our shields mean nothing to the Borg. If we were to concentrate the planet wide shield on a single city, for example, maybe then the shields would hold up against the Borg..." Sham'lin trailed of.

"And leave the rest of the planet exposed to the Borgs weapons fire." Dir'lim hissed dissatisfied. "That is not a viable plan at all." Dir'lem added anger distorting the features of his face.

"How long would you be able to keep the shields sustained and operational under Borg disruptor bombardment if the shields were concentrated on a single city." San'ka asked her green eyes turning into large ovals.

"That all depends," Sham'lin ran his fingers through his dirty thin hair. "How many Borg ships there are and how often they fire..."

"Give me a number," San'ganse snarled, suddenly growing impatient, "A rough estimate will be fine." He added.

"Maybe, twenty or thirty standard Federation minutes." Sham'lin answered looking apologetic.

"While the rest of the planets are obliterated." Dir'lem added. They grew quiet unsure of themselves, they felt cornered, powerless.

"What about the starfleet ship," It was Tea'ra who broke the silence.

"What of it," San'ganse snarled at her and immediately regretted it, when he saw the way Tea'ra shrunk away from him.

He felt miserable, "Apologies," he whispered at Tea'ra, intending to keep it between themselves. But the way San'ka's wide green eyes stared at Tea'ra and him, he knew she had noticed his brief display of emotion towards Tea'ra.

"What is it," he growled at San'ka. "Oh nothing," she made a clueless innocent face. "Nothing at all," she said again and sniffed the air.

"What of the starfleet ship?" Sham'lin asked looking expectantly at Tea'ra. "Do you thing they might be of help."

Tea'ra got up, picked one of the shinny black padds laying in front of San'ganse and activated a holographic representation of the starship Ravenlin.

San'ganse crossed his muscular arms across his chest and leaned back into his plush chair. "This is foolishness, what can they do, other then die with us?"

"Starfleet has been known to pull off one or two miracles on more than one occasion." Tea'ra said ignoring him."This is a Tranquility class deep-space exploration ship. At nine hundred meters long it is the second largest ship in service with the fleet." San'ganse sighed at the foolishness and busied himself by staring at Tea'ra's large chest.

"There are only two of this class of ship in existence." Tea'ra kept explaining. "Many were build, but like I said, all but two were destroyed by the Jem'Hadar."

"Spare me the history lesson, we all know the ill fated invasion of the Dominion." Director San'ka made a face.

"When the fleet was launched to invade Dominion space, Admiral Stenton, bet it's survival on, back then, entirely new and untested stealth technology. There were one hundred and twelve ships in the invading fleet. But only two returned." She paused and glanced at San'ganse staring at her chest.

"_Needless to say,_" she stressed, "One of the ships that survived and made it back," She pointed at the holographic ship. "was The Ravenlin." She felt Sang'se's tail brushing against hers, she gently brushed it aside.

"The Captian of that ship is Ridiva, when, during the invasion her Captain was killed, she took command of the ship, and then spent one standard Federation cycle fighting and evading the Jem'Hadar, before she was able to bring the ship home at the conclusion of the war."

San'ganse kept staring at her. "Ridiva destroyed over ninety seven Jem'hadar fighters." Tea'ra glared at San'ganse.

"I think we should at least hold a conference with the staff of Ravenlin and see what they have to say. They are currently on their way here and should arrive right before dawn." Tea'ra finished and sat back down into her chair. She felt San'ganse's tail under her, he had purposely left it there. She glanced at him, blushing, arched her right eyebrow. He just shrugged his wide shoulders.

"I say, we talk to them," Dir'lem offered nonchalantly, "I have set up my defenses as best as I could, but I suspect it is all for nothing." He growled, quickly growing visibly upset and angry. "There is not much you can do against terrajoules of coherent disruptor energy falling from the sky"

"Agreed," San'ka simply said. "I will contact the ship right away, meet me in the tele-pario-suite number three." She got up and strutted out of the conference room. Dir'lem, San'ganse and Sham'lin got up.

"I think this is a complete utter waste of our time." Grand Admiral San'ganse whined, "Why can't you see that..."

"Irrelevant," Dir'lem snapped, "If I am going to die, at least, I wish to do so with a clear..." satisfied, he pivoted on his right foot and strode out of the room.

"What," San'ganse stood, nonplussed, his tail still caught under Tea'ra's butt.

"I think, Dir'lem means that he wishes to exhaust all possibilities of defense against the Borg, before he dies." Sham'lin offered, shrugged his drooping shoulders and then left the room.

San'ganse looked down to his left, at Tea'ra. She had her elbows on the table, her mouth hidden behind her intertwined fingers, she was looking up at him from under her blue eyebrows.

"Are you going," she inquired as she motioned with her head at the door. "You should..." She got up, freeing San'ganse's tail. "...At least go see what the crew of the Ravenlin will have to say."

"Ram'ta droppings..." San'ganse began under his breath. Tea'ra pushed San'gamse gently into his left shoulder.

"You promised you would not die," Tea'ra draped her tail over her left shoulder, her ears alert.

"If you die, I swear on our ancestors, I will not forgive you. Neither in this world nor in the Over-world." She breathed out as she coiled her smooth blue tail around her long neck. The sweet flowery aroma of her desire drifted on her pheromones. San'ganse's indecisiveness evaporated like morning dew in the hot scorching afternoon sun. He sighed.

"I will go... listen, I...guess it will not hurt to waste a few more moments. After all, my defense fleet is already deployed." He picked up his padds, Tea'ra hugged his left arm and she, clinging to him, left the conference room.


	6. Chapter 6

Captian Ridiva was aglow. She head not left the conference room since she had dismissed her staff. She had went over a hundred of simulations and their variations. All had ended the same way.

Them dying. She had left her several dozen padds on her conference table and started pacing back and forth. Rage and anger soon overwhelmed her. Her eyes and hair was shimmering a brilliant red. She wanted to find the solution, she was determined to win, to save her people and herself from the Borg armada barreling towards them. She had hesitated by the window and was observing how the effortlessly the stars sailed by when her comm badge chirped.  
"Ridiva here," she answered immediately.

"We have on incoming transmission from a Senov official," informed her night-shift chief operations officer Liy'anka. "Do you wish me to route it to your office?"

"No, I will be on the bridge momentarily."

Captain Ridiva apprehensively crossed the hallway that linked her conference room and the bridge. When she entered the bridge, Liy'anka got up from the captains chair and bowed her head as was customary with Senovnan females. Captian Ridiva did likewise and turned her gaze towards the large holographic image hanging in mid-air at the front of her bridge.

"I am Captaint Ridiva of the star-ship Ravenlin, to whom am I speaking?" She asked, but could not help but notice the stunningly beautiful Senovnan female displayed on her view-screen. For a fleeting second Ridiva wondered if all Senovnans were good looking. See knew that the humans certainly thought so.

"My name is San'ka," began the woman on the holographic display. _Even her voice seems soothing, _Ridiva thought.

"I am the Director Of Foreign Affairs, I have been asked by Grand Admiral San'ganse to set up a conference call with you, we need to go over any strategy that you might have in combating the Borg."

Ridiva's mind raced for a second. "I am going to have a staff meeting in less than forty minutes, you are welcome to join us, if that suits you." The Captain answered confidently, then asked, "Earlier I spoke with Governor Maa'rek, how are things on your side."

"The Governor has chosen to lead a large civilian fleet to safety in the Sea of Sorrows," San'ka answered evenly, for some reason Ridiva thought she caught a hint of contempt in the woman's voice.

"Forty minutes is sufficient time for us to prepare, I will see you later." San'ka bowed her head and sighed off.

"Captian, are you alright," Liy'anka asked Ridiva, her intense golden-blue eyes affixed to her Captian.

"I am fine." Ridiva answered, "Carry on," and quickly left the bridge.

"Have you ever seen the Captain glow so brightly before," Liy'anka asked ensign Rak'tavi.

"No, never." he turned back to his console. "She must be really pissed of."

"Yeh, I guess." Liy'anka replied and sat back down into the Captains chair.


	7. Chapter 7

"This will never work," whined the chief engineer with his customary high pitched voice.

"We wont know till we try, will we not?" Garim spread his gray hands. "You think everything will never work, until it works. What do you think?" Garim turned to the Andorian lead scientist Zamel.

"There is insufficient data to make any sort of claim." The Andorian shrugged his shoulders. "Remember what the Captain said, we have no weapons that can defeat the Borg. I am paraphrasing, of course, but you understand my point. And..." He raised his white eyebrows, "...there is no way that we will be able to build and test a weapon in a couple of hours." He leaned back against the smooth brown arch that lead to engineering.

"Aren't you giving up to easily," Garim intoned, "I thought Andorians had the blood of warriors flowing in their veins."

"Our history notwithstanding," Zalem retorted, "Perhaps you have some clever ideas on how we should best the Borg, I heard you Cardassians are very sneaky."

"Must I remind you," T'lan spoke up, "That our lives depend on finding a solution to our current predicament, perhaps we should limit our discussions to more productive subjects, mainly that which deals with the Borg."

"Subspace weapons," Lieutenant Commander Lim'na blurted out.

"Those are banned," Rovi stuttered.

"Subspace weapons were banned for a reason," T'lan said coolly, looking at Lim'na.

"So what, the worlds that sighed the treaty will most likely not exist tomorrow, besides, the subspace strata underlying the Sea of Sorrows is already unstable." He paused, thinking, "If we could lure the Borg fleet to the nebula and detonate one of the subspace weapons there, the damage to space and the accompanying spatial distortions should be limited to the nebula, perhaps it will work." He raised his blue eyebrows and looked at all of the present.

"And if we permanently damage subspace in that region, or even worse, completely destroy it. What then?" Zamel pointed out.

"That is irrelevant, that region of space is useless as it is now.' Lim'na retorted, irritated, his golden-blue eyes grew wide.

"As you have stated," T'lan started, "That region of space has many subspace instabilities, if we where to detonate a subspace based weapon there. It is very conceivably that such an explosion would cause a subspace inversion and open up a rift. The rift could threaten the whole system."

"And the Borg are just stopping by to say hi," Lim'na snapped.

"This is a serious matter," T'lan said.

"If I wasn't serious I would never bring this up," Lim'na said.

"Do we even have the right to do this," Rovi whined again, "And I remember the Captain saying something about the Senovans taking shelter from the Borg's armada in the Sea of Sorrows."

"Obviously we would tell those who have taken shelter in the Nebula from the Borg, to leave, before we undertake any action against the Borg." Lim'na stated.

"The Borg are no longer assimilating, either individuals or their technology, there is no reason for them to follow us." T'lan said, "it will be impossibly to lure them anywhere. Even if we were to attack the Borg, in an attempt to lure them away from Senovia and then retreat, it would be useless. The Borg simple will lay waste, first to the planets, and them track down the ship that attacked them and destroy it." T'lan explained.

"This course of action will be useless, unless we discover a way to lure the Borg into the Sea of Sorrows." T'Lan added her face even.

"Obviously," Garim added sarcastically.

The ship shook, shuddered and rolled violently from side to side as the red alert klaxons blazed and screeched.

"This is not a drill, report to your stations," the prerecorded Captains voice boomed through the ship simultaneously as the klaxons.

"Ah..." Garim said, as he ran out of the engineering towards the nearest turbo-lift, "...our friends are here."


	8. Chapter 8

Captain Ridiva, after pacing for thirty standard minutes, resigned herself to the chair next to her large wooden deck. She was desperately trying to calm herself down, her bioplasma rolling like fog of her glowing strands of hair.

The last time she was this angry and distraught was at the Battle Of The Callous, when her Captain had been killed and the entire Advance Stealth Fleet wiped out, save two ships, The Ravenlin and the Pillar of Hope. She had leaned her chair back on its two back legs, a bad habit that her mother used to scold her for, that Ridiva had never managed to shake.

Her eyes were shut tight, every ounce of her will concentrated on her churning overheating core, when she felt a slight irritating disturbance in her ectenic field, her eyes flew open and she, flailing her hands in a desperate attempt to catch herself, in her chair, crashed to the floor.

There was a Borg, staring at her from the outside, seemingly unaware that her ship was barreling through space at full warp. Ridiva frantically scrambled up, her brilliant eyes bulging in shock at the image hanging serenely outside her window, unaffected by the intense warp energies. Her shaking hand stopped midway to her badge, as she was about to call security, when she realized it was a holographic projection.

"Damn it," She screamed, "Garim I will kill you for this." As the shock wore of, she instantly sprinted out into the dark hallway that connected her conference room and the bridge. She barely caught a glimpse of the ship-wide infamous pranksters, Garim's son, Darious, and his two friends, his partners in crime, as they escaped behind the closing doors of the turbo-lift. In their scramble to get away, they left their holographic projector in the hall. Exasperated, Caption Ridiva kicked the projector with her full might sending it smashing into a wall, instantly cutting the projection of. She heard their joyful giggles fade away as the electromag servos activated and whisked Darious and his friends to safety.

"This is not funny," She screamed at the closed turbo-lift doors, her blood pressures and her crimson glow increasing in concert.

"Capain, we need you on the bridge immediately," The voice of of her Chief Operations Officer, Liyanka, sounded from her combadge. Ridiva sighed in miserable resignation. As she turned away from the mute doors of the turbo-lift and strode hurriedly towards her bridge she made a mental note to talk with Garim, perhaps, she thought, she would give him a few parenting pointers.

When Captain Ridiva entered the bridge, the worried faces of Rak'tavi and Liyanka quickly turned to face Ridiva.

"What is going on?" Ridiva asked them frowning as she saw the main holographic view-screen displaying five Borg cubes flying in a star formation.

"They are building a warp catapult," Liayanka said as she moved to stand next to her captain.

Ridiva's frown deepened, "what does this mean" she glanced at one of Zamel's science officers, furiously working the controls of his console.

It was Liyanka who spoke up, her voice low, "If we extrapolate the data that we got from Voyager, on warp catapults, and judging by the intensities of the warp field that is building up for discharge, they-" She hesitated, glanced at the human science officer, and then, looking back at her captain, continued.

"The Borg will be able to fire the catapult just once, before overloading and destroying the ships that are part of the catapult formation."

"How many ships and how far will they be able to lunch them?" Ridiva asked, motioning at the holo-view-screen with her face.

"We are not sure Captain" lieutenant Smith answered, finally looking up from his science console. "Two, maybe..." He hesitated, glanced back at his readouts, then back at Ridiva, "...maybe three, at the most, their...ships weren't designed for this kind of warp stresses." Smith stopped, and looked at Ridiva, then quickly looked away.

Ridiva was used to such uneasy displays of behavior by humans, at least those that did not know her and were not yet accustomed to her appearance. She had long learned to except this and ignored the startled reactions she elicited out of humans with her solid black eyes and glowing irises.

"Do we know when the Borg will be ready to lunch their ships?" Ridiva directed her gaze and her inquiry at the human science officer. He shrugged his shoulders, as if unsure, before answering, "Due to sub-spatial stresses, I would say they have to lunch their ships soon or risk destruction for nothing."

"How far will they be able lunch their ships?" Ridiva asked again her eyes narrowing to red glowing slits. Liyanka looked at Smith expectantly, herself, obviously without an answer.

Smith's expression changed one from distraction and confusion to one of pure surprise as a series of bleeps and alarms shrilled loudly form his console. He looked up wide eyed at the holo-viewscreen as three Borg cubes moved to the center of the star formation, their shields flaring brightly under the onslaught of warp stress.

"The Borg are preparing to fire the warp catapult!" Smith exclaimed, "The warp field strength is increasing fast, eminent lunch likely."

"Raise battle shields," Captain Ridiva said as she confidently and briskly strode to her chair and stood by it. Liyanka followed her to the center of the dimly lit bridge, bathed by the green energy of the view-screen.

"Shields are up" night-shift tactical officer responded curtly, "Weapons" Ridiva asked looking at him.

"Ready."

"Prepare a full spread of quantum torpedoes in the aft tubes and stand by for my mark"

"Ready"

"Captain!" Smith exclaimed again, his eyes bulging, "the Borg are targeting us!"

"How?" Ridiva simple asked and looked at him.

"With the ships, sir. With the ships."

Ridiva knew that the Borg where at the extreme edge of the Ravenlin's long range sensors. And that was saying a lot, the Borg were no where near weapons range and would not be so until morning. But the catapult changed everything.

"Rak'tavi" Captain Ridiva turned away from Smith and faced the Senovnan pilot, "prepare evasive pattern delta nine." Then she turned swiftly to tactical, "sound red alert, I want my senior crew here, now." The loud whooping sound of red alert filled the ship, Ridivia ordered the sound cut on the bridge as she took her seat and the dark blue Senovnana, Liyanka took the seat to Ridiva's right.

"The catapult has fired, Borg ship arrival in..." Lieutenant Smith didn't have time to finish his sentence when the warp field from the Borg catapult impacted the ship, instantly followed by three Borg cubes.


	9. Chapter 9

FIGHT

Garim had been the first to storm the bridge with his gray eyes blazing, followed by the rest of the senior crew.

But by the time they had reached the bridge the shaking had stopped and the red alert had been canceled.

Garim quickly relieved the ensign manning tactical and asked.

"What in the world are we up to here?" While busying himself with the quietly bleeping display. "You fired eighteen quantum torpedoes and ten photon torpedoes," He looked up in surprise from his console, at the ensign and then Captain Ridiva, "At What? There is nothing out there." He motioned at the holographic view-screen.

"There was a moment ago," Ridiva answered with a sigh as she turned away from the command chair and motioned for Liyanka to resume her duty.

"There were three Borg cubes out there, they just barreled past us, they will arrive at the Senovian System..." Ridiva glanced at Zamel checking some readouts over Smith's shoulder. "...fifteen minutes before we do."

"Then..." Garim exclaimed, looking at Ridiva, "...your _barrage..." _he emphasized, "...did little to hinder the Borg's advance at the system." He paused and looked at Zamel. "Curious as how they where even able to advance?"

"They made a makeshift warp catapult...maybe they learned about it from Admiral Janeway. When they...uh...assimilated her." Zamel quickly offered stepping away from the science console, satisfied with Smith's performance.

"The Borg sacrificed five ships in order to advance three of their ships ahead of us by fifteen minutes. I want to know why and I want to know now." Captain Ridiva thrust her index finger at the floor. "Its not like the Borg at all, to kill their own, unless they want something badly." She added.

"Whatever the reason is I am glad they did it" Lim'na stated looking at Ridiva.

Ridiva met his gaze, "A minor victory for us, if it can be called a victory at all. But remember there are still twenty two Borg cubes to deal with, plus, even if we are able to survive the coming battle, what is there stopping the Borg from sending more ships."

"Hell of a pep talk..." Garim started.

"There are..." Ridiva raised her voice, "...seven thousand Borg on the way to annihilate the main core of UFP. When they are done there, they will no doubt continue there wave of destruction to the outlying federation cores. If we succeed in destroying the Borg here, more will come, we need a more permanent solution." She looked at all those present. "I will see you all at the conference in..." She glanced at the bridge's cronograph, "...thirty minutes." She then exited the bridge into her ready room, with Commander T'lan promptly following her.

"Well, that," Garim said, dramatically shifting his gaze at the closed door of the Captain's ready room, "was a total waste of a few good torpedoes."

"Ah Garim, just let it be," Lim'na waved his hand at Garim dismissively as he crossed the bridge to the auxiliary science console, "you heard the Captain, she wants answers and she wants them now." He activated the console and brought the diagram of his star system up on display. There was something there the Borg wanted and he was sure as the underworld he was going to find out what that was.

"Don't we all?" Zamel asked.

"How do you propose we do that, We can't just ask..." Garim paused mid sentence and ran over to the command chair, startling Liyanka.

"Hail them," he gushed right into her blue face.

"Hail who." She shrunk away from Garim.

"The Borg, the Borg."

"Have you lost your _shelocks...?" _Liyanka started, crinkling her nose up.

"Why..." Garim cut her of. "...Why can't we just ask the Borg?" Garim demanded sticking his face inches away from Liyanka's.

Liyanka placed her dark blue hand on Garim's chest and as she stood up, gently pushed him away.

"First of," after taking a few steps away she made a show of facing Garim. "What did we talk about personal space?" She waved her arms around her, drawing imaginary boundaries in the air. "I seem to recall we had this talk several days ago?" She raised her eyebrows at Garim.

"Second, you just don't talk with the..." she paused, "wait, why can't we talk to the Borg?" She looked at all the present in turn, who just shrugged their shoulders. When her gaze settled back on Garim, he was beaming a terrawatt a minute.

"Rak'tavi, open hailing frequencies," Liyanka ordered and briskly sat back down into the brown command chair.

"Are you sure Ma'am?" Rak'tavi asked hesitantly.

"Have I ever given you on order that of which I was unsure of...?"

"On numerous occasions..."

"Just hail away already..." She waved her hand at Rak'tavi.

"Channels are open." Rak'tavi said a second after a few tones issued form his console.

"Ask away, Mr. Garim." Liyanka gave him an obviously intentional fake smile. Garim cleared his throat and stepped up to the holo-screen.

Liyanka rolled her eyes, _They can't see you, cut the drama,_ she thought.

"This is Lieutenant Commander Garim of the USS Ravenlin, I am the Chief of Security and as such I am the one who will be kicking you _hreld_ once we do battle. But in the mean time could you be so kind and tell us as to what has you so interested in the Senovian star system that you are willing to blow up five of you ships?" Garim asked.

"Nice, very diplomatic and all..." Commander Lim'na never finished his sentence, for, much to everyone's shock, he was interrupted by the Borg.

"This is the Borg, you annihilation is assured, resistance is futile, perfection will be obtained." The Borg answered in their customary monotone unison.

"Um...perfection, could you please elaborate on that, you see, you and I, I believe, we have a very different understanding of what perfection is?" Garim asked with out hesitation.

"This is the Borg, you annihilation is assured, resistance is futile, perfection will be obtained."

"Not quite the response I was looking for..."

"This is the Borg, you annihilation is assured, resistance is futile, perfection will be obtained."

"Yes yes, I get that part, the part I don't get is th..."

"This is the Borg, you annihilation is assured, resistance is futile, perfection will be obtained."

Liyanka motioned for Rak'tavi to silence the channels.

"This is the Borg, you annihilation is assured, resistance is futi..." The unison chorus fell blissfully silent.

"Gah, I hate that sound," Liyanka yelled at the holographic view-screen, "I feel like they just defiled my ship."

"Ok," Zamel shrugged his shoulders at Liyanka. In the last six years that he had served with Senovnan's he still did not understand their obsession with sanctity. He didn't even try anymore.

"But," he said "that was not very productive." Then added "Now what?" and at the same time pointed at the bridge's oval cronograph.

"I am not sure, I have never heard anything about the Borg seeking perfection, let alone that this perfection being in the Sevon Star System." Garim offered.

Lim'na furrowed his blue-gray eyebrows, "Something the Captain said a moment ago, it's bugging the underworld out of me." He looked at all the present and drew blank stares.

"She said, 'Unless they want something.'" He was still drawing blank stares from his fellow officers.

"'They' being the Borg!" Still blanks.

He sighed and said, "Computer, search: Borg and perfection, display files on my station."

"One file found" the monotone voice of the computer replied immediately.

"What? Really?" Lim'na's silver eyes flashed to his stations display. "Display file." He ordered as the senior crew crowded around him.

"Unable to comply."

"Why not?"

"Authorization lever one required."

They all glanced at each other, as understanding dawned on them. They knew that only a dully authorized captain, appointed by star-fleet command, could access files classified level one.

"Who classified this file?" Lim'na asked and held his breath.

"File classification was initiated on star-date 32651.1.23, by Captain Ridiva." Said the flat monotone voice of the computer.

"That is exactly after the Captain was officially promoted, when she returned from the Gamma Quadrant. I believe it was during Ravenlin's refit." Garim said.

After a pause, all of them took of for the Captain's ready room. At once.


	10. Chapter 10

Dissonance.

Sim'na was raging when he left the hastily set up meeting with Sham'lin. The Director of the Education Ministry had ordered the Senov Institute of Technology head, Sheeda, to start preparing the defense grid for a focused and singular defense of the Senovian Capital, Sat'nep Prime. Sim'na's rage had been so great that he had crushed his personal transporter while attempting to input his destination on the clam-shell device.

To vent his fury he decided to run back to the Senov State University, but in his rage, instead ended up at the Holy Gardens of Cat'nip. The ancient towering _sheids_ rose proudly into the rain. Sim'na doubled over under the luminescent _sheidas, _his breath came in fast ragged gasps, the streaming tears mixed with the rain as they ran down his black face. He felt so powerless.

_The idiots will kill us all, they have no idea what the underworld they are doing. I need to do something, I need to stop them from the path they are on._ He bowed his matted head to the ground and prayed to the over-world, sobs shaking his body.

_Oh, Senovia my love, they have come for you, the destroyers, beseech us from all sides. _

_ Oh, Senovia my love they come for your life, the destroyers, I am powerless._

_ Oh, Senovia my love they have come to kill, the destroyers, your protectors are fools._

_ Oh, Senovia my love, they have come for your children, your protectors have fled._

_ Oh, Senovia, my love, grant me the strength and the wisdom, for your children. _

Reciting the ancient prayer in his mind, Simul Arna, raised his face towards the sky, towards the rain and wept. He prayed for the mothers, he prayed for their souls, he prayed for the children, he prayed for their souls. He prayed for Senovia, he prayed for her soul, he prayed for the warriors circling her, he prayed for their souls, and the souls of the fools who led them. He prayed for the souls of them who had abandoned Senovia and her children, he prayed for them all.

He did not know if it was the rain, or the winds, or his own distress, but she had approached him without detection, by the time his golden-red eyes flashed around to face her, it was too late. She was upon him.

* * *

T'lan followed her captain into her ready room, as soon as the doors hissed shut Ridiva promptly spun around to face her Commander.

"T'lanacka, don't ask, I am under strict orders not to reveal anything." Ridiva said, looking at T'lan with pleading bright red eyes.

T'lan arched her left eyebrow, the gesture that was associated with intense emotions in a Vulcan, although, intense was a relative term, Ridiva knew.

"Red, I know that, logically, if you have standing orders preventing you from discussing or revealing details pertaining to certain information, then you will follow those orders." Tlan replied, eying Ridiva as she plopped down on her dark brown couch.

"I can't believe myself," Ridiva said with a long sigh. The looked up at T'lan, "That was one hell of a tongue slip."

"Red." T'lan begun as she sat down next to where Ridiva was sprawled on the couch. "There is a slight possibility that your crew did not notice your unintentional disclosure of information." Captian Ridiva jumped up and swinging her arms wide spun around to face the seated Commander.

"Lanka, did you see how Lim was staring at me?" Ridiva widened her red glowing eyes at Commander T'lan. "He was practically boring a whole into my core." She pointed at her chest. "If those silver eyes of his where phasers, I am sutr they would be set to level ten kill..." She stopped and took a long calming breath, lowering her luminescence a few orders of brightness.

"Your core is intact, and very well armored." T'lan pointed at Ridivas large chest. "Commander's Lim'nas's eyes are not phasers. However, I do believe he will be the first to recognize the significance of your words." She looked coolly at Ridiva.

"I swear he is watching me like a hawk, every time I turn around, there he is staring at me." Captian Ridiva threw her arms up in the air. "It's like he is trying to catch me in a mistake, I feel like a rat."

"I highly doubt that your species evolved from Muroidea, it is not readily apparent to which super-family your genus belongs too, simply on the lack of data." T'lan got up. "Further more, Senovians evolved from genus Panthera on Senovian grass plains. Commander's Lim'na's genus is far removed form the genus of Aves."

"Lanka, I was speaking metaphorically," Ridiva made a face at T'lan, "or is it allegorically?"

"I believe, metaphorically, is the correct term. And, I am quite aware of that fact." T'lan answered.

"Ah, Lanka, I am still not quite up to speed on Vulcan humor." Ridiva smiled at T'lan. T'lan arched her left eye brow a second time, "You spend eight years at the Vulcan Centralized Academy for Higher Education, and you are still unable to grasp the finer nuances of Vulcan humor?"

"Well, forgive me," Ridiva arched her eyebrows, "When I got to Vulcan, I didn't even know of Vulcan humor, or whatever you call it. Trans-logic or para-logic, or some such nonsensical brain numbing concept. Besides, I spent my time in the dish, studying with that slave driver you guys call a teacher."

"I do understand, that the time you spend on Vulcan was indeed very productive and rewarding." T'lan simple stated.

Ridiva sighed, "Yes, all those PhDs, and I can't keep my mouth shut."

"I will not ask you to reveal the classified information, but I must ask," T'lan said, "Is there anything pertaining to that information that could be of use against the Borg."

"No," Ridiva answered, sighed and turned to face the stars sailing by her large window. "I don't know. Lanka." Captain Ridiva hesitated, "Maybe," she shrugged her shoulders, crossed her arms under her bust and turned to face T'lan.

"I don't know maybe, I am not sure."

T'lan clasped her hands behind her back. "The United Federation of Planets, it will most likely be destroyed by the Borg in the next forty eight hours. Should we not exhaust all possibilities, or venues, all ideas? I dully understand your orders, but if the classified information pertains to the Borg, I ask that you consider releasing all information to the senior crew members. However insignificant that information might be. Red, I believe the crew needs all the information in attempting to devise an effective means of defeating the Borg."

"Lanka..." Ridiva began with a sigh, but was interrupted by a shrill alarm issuing out of her holo-tactile display hanging above her desk. Captain Ridiva spun the display to face her, as she read the alarms contents her frown was replaced by a wide eyed stare at T'lan.

"That eagle eyed Lim'na has accessed the classified file," Ridiva whispered at T'lan. "It is just as I thought." Tlan answered stoically.

As the doors hissed opened and Ridiva's senior officers burst in, Ridiva swiped the haptic interface built into her desk and shut down the display. She then straightened up to her full height and in the most formal way she could manage, gently tugged on her under-bust command red vest and asked. "What is the meaning of this intrusion?"

* * *

She crashed into his body, into his arms, and ferociously tore at his clothes, startled and surprised by her and her need, assaulting his nostrils Sim'na stammered, "Wed'na, what are you doing here...my love." She straddled him and at the same time coiled her tail around his.

"When you did not come home, my love I came looking for you," Wedi Arna wiggled her hips and sank onto him, around him. Sim'na griped her slender waist and groaned, Wed'na clasped his head and brought her face to his, "I need you, my beloved, I crave you..." She stifled her moans escaping her throat.

"This...this is...love," she shook and gyrated on top of him. "This is...life, my beloved." Her hot breath came in short forced gasps, playing against his face, warming his cold wet skin. Sim'na let go, of his worries, his nightmares, and craved her, her love, her body, her smell. He prayed to Senovia, he prayed to the over-world that this moment would last a life time. And then it came, the flash of insight, in a moment he knew how to stop the Borg. He roared his happiness, and Wed'na took great delight in his sudden vigor.

* * *

"Are you hiding information concerning the Borg," Lim'na's silver eyes bored into Ridiva's as he demanded. Ridiva narrowed her eyes into thin red slits and approached Lim'na, dangerously close. He could feel the intense heat her body was giving of.

"Know your place, commander," Ridiva stressed. He drew up to his full height but took a step back. "Captain May, I mean no disrespect, I apologize if I came across as such, but if there is anything that could help save my home." He emphasized by pointing at himself. "I would very much like to know." Captain Ridiva relaxed and waved for her officers to take a seat, as she sat down herself.

"Well, Captain?" Garim prompted "Are you hiding information about the Borg?" His eyes grew wide.

"I am not hiding anything," Ridiva barked at him, glowing a shade brighter. "It is my duty as a captain to obey and respect my superiors..."

"Who are fighting for their lives right now." Garim cut her of.

"We all are fighting for our lives." Captian Ridiva got up. Garim arched his reptilian ridges.

"You may choose to disrespect me and my sanctity, but I am still your Captain. I do not want any of you entering my office unannounced again. Is that clear." She raised her voice.

"Of course Captain, as always, crystal clear." Garim replied instantly. Ridiva turned to face the seated Lim'na and was not surprised to find him staring at her, again, she stared back. After a second as if remembering something forgotten he said. "Yes sir." For a fleeting moment Ridiva thought of extending her ectenic field around him and reading his mind.

"Have any of you heard of the omega molecule?" She looked all those present in the face. And drew blank stares. "Computer release file lock on Ridiva beta alpha." Captain Ridiva ordered the computer as she swiped out a series of commands on the table. The thin nano-tronic layer on her desk build a stack of leaflets, in front of her. She took the claytronic stack of leaflets and passed out one to each of her crew. Garim impatiently activated his leaflet, input his authorization code and scrolled through the contents. His eyes grew wider.


End file.
